Horticultural expert Bill Lord, center, humorously advises pruners never to face the owner of an apple tree when making a big cut. His workshop attracted almost 100 people to Meaderboro Road.
John Nolan/Times photo

FARMINGTON — A surprisingly large crowd of 95 people showed up on a recent Saturday morning for a pruning workshop put on by Strafford County Extension Service and hosted by Hiram Watson in his orchard on Meaderboro Road.

The fine weather for the occasion was complemented by good coffee and the fine baking of Nancy Watson. Then the crowd drifted out into the orchard, from where the land sloped down to the south, before rising up onto the flanks of Blue Job Mountain on the other side of the valley.

Food and Agriculture Field Specialist Kelly McAdams introduced the Extension Service emeritus fruit expert, Bill Lord — described by Hiram Watson, as “one of the best in the country in his field.”

Lord, armed with two pairs of loppers and a saw, smiled at the crowd gathered in a large circle around him and said, “How do apple trees grow? I guess we should talk about that before we start whacking at ‘em.”

He briefly touched on root stocks and grafting, and noted that it was not until at least year three of an apple tree’s life that it started to bear fruit.

He said it was important to let as much sunlight as possible onto the tree, and to keep in mind, while pruning, the formation of a Christmas tree shape — wide at the bottom and narrow at the top — in order to get more fruit.

This practice, said Lord, has been followed since the 14th century in Europe, save for a brief period in the 1800s when it became fashionable to have a wide top and a narrow bottom.

“That was one of the worst 75 ideas in the history of horticulture,” pronounced Lord.

Then he got to work on a Honey Crisp apple tree with his pruner.

“Remove the whole limb. Don’t prune at the end. That’s how deer prune, and they don’t know what they’re doing,” said Lord.

“Get the light in,” said Lord, snipping away. “And never make a big cut, while you are facing the owner of the tree.”

“Have at it,” chipped in Hiram Watson, encouragingly.

“There are desirable cuts and less desirable,” said Lord, working his way around the Honey Crisp. “They are no big deal. Trees don’t have feelings as far as we know. April 15 is a good day to prune — you feel a little bit more aggressive.”

He then demonstrated how a branch can be teased in a new direction to avoid colliding with another, down the road.

“You have to look at a tree in four dimensions,” he explained. “How will a tree look over time? Fruit gets heavy in August and September.”

Lord advised that moderate to light pruning of an apple tree every year is better than “whacking at it” every 10 years.

Asked the best way to get fruit,” Lord responded, “Spray — I hate to say it. But you talk with your wallets regarding what you want. Big and red (apples.)”

He said that while Honey Crisp was at low risk for apple scab, varieties like Cortland and McIntosh were susceptible to it — hence the need to spray, in order to produce commercially appealing apples.

Lord mentioned the need to treat for scab with a fungicide called Captan (which is noted on Wikipedia as “a probable human carcinogen by the EPA.”)

With the pruning techniques for apple trees amply demonstrated, Lord and the crowd then moved to another section of the orchard, where peach trees were next up for branch removal.Hiram Watson has around 200 trees in his orchard — apricots, plums, peaches, pear, and including around 25 different varieties of apple. Among these are Honey Crisp, Ginger Gold, Wolf River, Cortland, Gala, Fuji, Cox’s Orange Pippin, and a variety that he has developed himself from a wild apple tree. It is the ingeniously named Hiram’s Apple.Hiram Watson expressed his appreciation of Lord’s and McAdams’ efforts in putting on such a popular workshop. He also had special gratitude for the Strafford County Commission, who restored funding for the Extension Service in their past budget.